Grey Hooded Kingfisher wallpaper
Grey Hooded Kingfishers are residents of East Africa and has been reported in Arabia. One of the kingfishers that defies its description, dining on insects and small vertebrates such as lizards, rather than fish.
California sea otter populations sink as research funding dries up
Populations of southern, or California, sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) have declined for the second year in a row, including a dramatic drop in births, according to new numbers released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). At the same time, the money necessary to study and help save the sea otters could soon evaporate amidst California’s budget crisis.
The number of pups has dropped precipitously and for reasons unknown it’s range has declined by 50 km (31miles). Some suspected reasons for their decline include shark attacks, toxins and malnutrition. Despite his claims to be an environmental moderate Governor Schwarzenegger has cut revenue sources that benefit large corporations at the expense of the environment. Various financial boondoggles such as this were used by the governor to supposedly create jobs – cut taxes create jobs – makes for yet another mindless bumper sticker but obviously has not paid off since California’s unemployment rate is currently at 12.5%. It is doubtful pushing the sea otter to the brink of extinction is much consolation to the unemployed.
As Americans we have come to depend on the many convenience products that are available to us, and nowhere is this more evident than in the school lunch room. Most parents pack lunch items in single-use plastic bags, aluminum foil, or wax paper, or they purchase single-serving items that come in their own disposable package. Admittedly, these products are extremely convenient, but what is the environmental cost to a country that relies so heavily on them? Landfills are full and overflowing. Incinerators pump contaminants into the air. Communities are battling over who will accept the nation’s trash. We all enjoy these conveniences, but few of us are willing to allow new landfills and incinerators to be built in our own backyards.
Much of the trash we generate comes from the packaging on the food we buy, and lunch foods are no exception. In fact, it has been estimated that on average a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school.
There is a FREE Waste-free Lunch Pamphlet at the link.
Promethean Power Systems has developed a solar-powered refrigeration system
The system uses ice to cool the products and solar power to enable the cooling. Once ice is loaded, the system operates using only solar power therefore can be installed in any remote location such as open fields, off-grid villages or building structures without electrical grid power.
Lowest capital and operating cost: we’ve designed this product to be simple, low-cost and easy to operate. The system uses very few moving parts and incorporates our own proprietary technologies to reduce equipment and operating cost.
This is a great idea. Cold food storage helps prevent waste of sometimes scarce food supplies. Not in the way of being overly critical, but just as a practical matter that still leaves the matter of making or getting the ice. This gentleman has been experimenting with making ice in hot climates – Figuring the Future: How to Make Ice Out of Thin Air: Cool Heat Transfer – using a Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube. You can make plenty of ice with a good supply of ammonia, but that introduces another money/supply issue in addition to the toxicity of ammonia gas.
tangledwing 